


Awake

by bipallidan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2019-07-13 23:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16028219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bipallidan/pseuds/bipallidan
Summary: During his time with the BoM, Keith Kogane discovers there has been another Human/Galra hybrid in the organization who is currently presumed dead. He begins to find this last piece of information doubtful after he discovers the member's still-glowing blade.





	1. Prologue

**Asleep.** He's been in this state for who knows how long. 

He had little energy left for dreaming. Although he must be suspended in some kind of cryo-state, something was still draining him. The best his mind could do to keep his subconscious occupied was to relive old memories— the strongest of which wasn't a very happy one. His most recent memory, before everything had come to a pause, replayed in his head whenever it needed something real to hold onto. 

 

_The team was gathered around the seating area of the ship after completing another successful mission. The rest of them were talking about their home lives, and Menara was sharing stories about her two youngest children. She was the oldest of them, and they all relied on her heavily for not only combat advice but also emotional advice._

_Valor stayed by the controls, keeping a close eye on their path home._

_The conversation had turned to distant planets when Menara asked, "Valor, would you ever want to see the planet your mother came from?"_  
  
_Valor didn't process her question, too occupied with his current job. She asked again._  
  
_"Hm?" he responded. "Earth?"_  
  
_"Yes."_

_He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought about this. "I'm not sure."_

_"Well, why not?" asked the youngest of their team. "Don't you want to know what it's like, where you came from?"  
_

_"I have never set foot on it," said Valor. "I have no reason to. Maybe if there was a mission there someday, I would..."_  
  
_"You have to let yourself believe the idea that one day your life won't be all about these missions," said Menara. "Someday this will be over, and you can go wherever you please."_

_He shook his head. "I don't know."_

_"Would you at least look at us while you brush off our optimism?"_

_Valor begrudgingly turned away from the monitor. He looked Menara directly in the eyes. "I am not interested in visiting my mother's home. This is my current purpose and it is what I will focus on."_  


_He never thought that looking away for one second just to spite Menara would allow..._

_There was a large crash in the back of the ship._

_What was that?" asked Menara._

_Valor turned back to the monitor.  
  
The ship lurched and started pulling backward. Someone had found their way right into their blind spot while he wasn't looking.   
  
  
_ Ping! Ping! Ping!   
  
"It's doing it again," a voice drifted in. This wasn't part of the memory.   
  
_  
__The door burst open and armed Galra forces flooded into the room, shooting everyone down immediately. Perhaps they shouldn't have put their weapons away for "celebration" like Izan suggested. Valor pulled his blade from his pocket just as someone pointed a gun at him. It wasn't a very efficient defense, but Valor was grasping at straws here. His heart was racing. He didn't dare look over at his teammates. He didn't want to see it.  
  
__"That's him," said one of them.  
  
__Valor launched forward, knife in hand, and—_

_Sleep._

 

"I'm telling you, it's been happening more often lately," said the voice again. "We shouldn't be draining this much at a time."  
  
"It's necessary. We need everything if we want to combat Voltron." 

  
  
Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!  
  


"If he dies, we won't have any more to take." 

"Fine. Give him a break."   
  
  
A whirring noise. The pinging stopped.   



	2. Discovery

Keith wandered into the common area of the BoM headquarters early that morning. He had always been an early riser and was still used to waking up before most of his companions at the Castle of Lions, but early everyone in the BoM was an early riser, so it wasn't as quiet as he was used to. Plenty of them had woken up even before Keith, as they were already set for the day and chattering with each other around the room. Keith could tune in on the general topic of each conversation as he passed. Most of them were about missions and information, few about more trivial things. It seemed the BoM didn't quite value communication for the sake of communication, which again, was vastly different from what Keith was used to in the Castle of Lions.

One conversation, in particular, captured his interest when he heard his name. Keith moved over to them and they stopped upon noticing his arrival. "Ah, Keith," said Noltri, attempting to brush off the situation. "Good morning."

Keith didn't bother to return. "What were you all talking about?"

The other two who were present in the previous conversation exchanged a look. Noltri once again attempted to brush this off. "Just a story you reminded us of."

Well, that wasn't going to help at all, Noltri.

Keith gave her a look, asking for more explanation. One of the remaining two spoke up, "It's not like he isn't allowed to know."

Noltri glared at her companion and turned back to Keith. "There was... another..." she seemed to be searching for the best way to explain this. "member of the Blade of Mormora of human decent a long time ago. He was killed on a mission, or so we presume. Besides, even if he did survive, he wouldn't be alive today. It was a very long time ago."

Keith raised an eyebrow. As far as he knew, he was the only part-human to ever have been a member of the Blade of Mormora, which explained how apprehensive they first were about giving him any kind of information.

"They were unsure on the specifics, but based on his features, they presumed his father was a half-breed of some sort himself. His mother was most certainly from Earth. I guess they haven't told you yet because they don't consider it of the utmost importance to your role here. It's just a small part of our history."

"That sounds like something I would've wanted to know..." Keith wasn't necessarily upset that they kept this from him, but he wanted to find out more as soon as he got the chance, and he was going to whether they liked it or not.

"There might be some photos of him and his team in the archives if you'd like to ask to take a look. This took place more towards the beginning of the Blade's formation. It wasn't as... structured as we are now, so you might have to dig."

Keith walked away before they could say anything else, and they watched him leave. He was going to spend all of his free time looking into this if he had to. _Another one. Another one. Another one._

* * *

  
The Archive was a rather chilly room full of boxes that got dustier the further back you traveled. Considering the Blade of Mormora had been around for so many years, it had thousands of shelves and multiple ladders for storage and accessibility purposes. If this person had been a member during the beginning, Keith would have to go far back into their history, possibly as far as he could go. He began walking, trying not to think about how easily he could get lost in here. Maybe if he just made it to the far wall and then began looking through the boxes, it could narrow down his search. He realized, then, that it probably would've been helpful to learn the member's name and the exact year they joined, but Keith didn't have the time to go back now. Besides, if this person was really what they said, the photo would show someone resembling human characteristics, right?

Keith reached the very end of the room after walking for quite some time. He had never stopped to consider before then just how large this room must be, and how much information must be stored inside it. How much information could there even be on this person? Would there be enough to answer all of his questions? Noltri had mentioned that they existed back before the Blade was more "structured" which could have meant they weren't efficient in their storage methods yet. Had they even looked into the team's disappearance? Was it considered a priority at all? Keith had seen members of the Blade die without the others batting an eye. They considered their mission far more important than their lives or the well-being of their fellow members.

He began looking around. A few of the boxes on the lower shelves had no labels, while the others had rather vague ones. Keith was doubtful there would be one very specific one to jump out at him just by sheer dumb luck, but he scanned for one, anyways. As if the universe decided to humor him, there was one box that looked significantly more worn than the others. It was as if it had been rifled through a lot or transported haphazardly. Someone had definitely taken this with them someplace. He reached for it and pulled it off the shelf.   
  
Keith placed the box on the ground and sat down in front of it. Upon examing the lid, he could make out some writing, which from what he'd picked up attempting to understand Galran, read, "Property of ____" He had to reread the name a few times before coming to the conclusion that it might say "Lourice."   
  
He tugged the lid off to glance at its contents. There were a few photos. That should be useful. Next to the photos sat a few trinkets. There were some coins of different types of currency, most likely from different planets and societies, a folded page torn out of a journal of some sort, a bracelet, and... a blade. A Galran blade, specifically. The things in the box were much more organized and in better shape than the box itself. Whoever owned it must've been extra careful with them.   
  
Keith took out the photos first and examined them. The first photo had five people in it. They seemed to be typical Galran, all with smiling faces. Their expressions were a lot more optimistic than the ones he spent time around now. The one second to last on the right, however, had a significantly different look about him. In contrast to the usual Galran purple skin, his own was more of a light brown. His markings were different, too— a downwards "V" that started on the bridge of his nose and ended on the center of both cheeks. They would probably crinkle if he had been smiling, but he was not. His eyes were hazel and very human-like. Names were scribbled at the bottom of each person's figure. The one to his read, "Menara." The one below him read, "Valor." The latter was easy to read because it was written with individual Galran letters, which was uncommon for the language. It was as if this name wasn't originally Galran. If Valor was who he was assuming, then this was probably the case.    
  
He moved on to the next photo after carefully placing that one next to the box. This next one pictured someone not in the crew, another Galran, alongside Valor. The other had an arm around him, a large smile on his face. In contrast to his expression in the first photo, Valor's face held a similar grin, albeit a begrudging one, almost as if someone had coaxed it out of him just before the photo was taken. There used to be writing on the bottom of this photo, but it seemed to have been smudged by some water damage.   
  
The third photo was harder to figure out. It was blurry, for one. It also looked like it was taken under the cover of something. The subject of the photo was a pod, much like the healing pod Lance was placed in on the Castle of Lions. This pod held a sleeping figure, which would've been a mystery to him, had the markings on his face not been glowing in such a way that he could spot the "V" formation.   
  
He stared at this last photo for a long moment before flipping it over. Most of the photos had captions, so this prompted him to investigate further. Coordinates were written on the back, along with the word "Stolen."   
  
There was definitely more to this story.   
  
He placed this photo with the rest, spurred by the increase in interest. He picked up the blade next and dropped it quickly when it seemed to flash. He watched it closely without movement before reaching for it again. Sure enough, as soon as he placed his hand on it, it began to glow again. It was _bright._ Almost in a panicked way— like an alarm, a beacon, a distress signal. He'd never seen a blade glow that brightly before. Then it went dark again. He tried to place it back down and pick it up again a few times, just to test it, but nothing happened.   
  
Great. He refused to even consider that he might've hallucinated the whole thing.   
  
He reached for the folded up page next but there was a lot of writing here. He didn't know enough of the language to translate this. However, the bottom half of the page spoke for itself. A map. And a ship diagram. 


	3. Suspended

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is short, but it's just an interlude. I thought it would be interesting to write what happened in Valor's perspective, just to showcase how it went on his end and how confusing everything kinda was. ((and maybe it was easier to write this way, but i want writing to be fun ok?))

Valor was still asleep. That much he was sure of. The rest... well, that he was a little less sure of. The sounds had changed. Everything was as usual, at first— the same whirring, the same shuffling, the same opening and locking of doors— until everything went quiet at once. It was like being sucked into a wormhole of nothing. Everything he'd ever gotten used to over the unspecified time he'd been in this state was  _gone_. For a moment, he wondered if he'd died. 

  
Then an alarm went off. He'd seen nothing but black for so long but now there was a new addition: flashes of red. It faded in and out, just barely there, but it was something, and all the consciousness he had left was latching onto it. There was a murmuring, a mixing of two unfamiliar voices, that got clearer as they got louder. The first thing he caught was just the tail end of a question, "— disconnect it?" He didn't care what happened to him at this point. Whether it was good or bad, it was new. Disconnect whatever the hell you want as long as things change. 

Apparently whoever was trying to "disconnect it" was trying to disconnect whatever he was in, because he began to feel himself being moved. He was jostled around until— "Oh, shit—"  He was jerked violently and started falling. He hit the ground and the red light faded. The same old memory from before he got here came back to play out for him once more.   


  
  



End file.
